REVIEWS
A powerful poetry of witness
The Speculations of Country People is the debut collection by award-winning Irish poet Majella Kelly. In this tender and inquisitive book, the land and its associated flora and fauna is a key character, as are women’s bodies and bodily autonomy. It is divided into four parts that oscillate between an intimate interiority – poems about desire, family, controlling relationships and self-discovery – and a powerful poetry of witness. Along with its strong, lyrical voice, the book’s sections are held together by evocative personifications of the natural world. A lake, for example, is layered with inherited history – another theme prevalent in Kelly’s work and intricately explored. “That’s the depth of the lake’s happiness,” she writes. “It’s generational and therefore deeper than any scientific measurement…
